Will Sumalatha Ambareesh take the saffron route to Mandya?

Bengaluru: Actress Sumalatha Ambareesh, an aspirant for the Mandya Lok Sabha seat once represented by her husband, the late actor and MP Ambareesh, on Friday met veteran BJP leader, S.M. Krishna and sought his blessings before making a formal debut in electoral politics.

This has triggered huge speculation that Ms Sumalatha, could well fight the Mandya poll as an Independent candidate with BJP support or even as a full fledged BJP candidate with the actress announcing that she would make known her final decision on March 18.

Ms Sumalatha widow of former Union Minister late Ambareesh who was seen as close to Mr Krishna when he was in the Congress party, drove down to the Sadashiva nagar residence of Mr Krishna where their meeting lasted for over half an hour. ‘Today I have come here because Mr Krishna is our senior leader. With his blessings I want to contest from Mandya as he is Mandya’s pride. I tried for many days and today finally I’ve met him,” she said.

” Since the Congress has given up Mandya (to the JD-S), the question of me contesting on that party’s ticket does not arise,’ she said, addressing a joint press conference with Mr Krishna.

Mr Krishna on his part said he would discuss the matter with party central leaders.

‘In the recent Mandya Lok Sabha byelection, our candidate Dr Siddaramaiah bagged a huge 2.5 lakh votes though we did not expect it. I will speak to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national leaders on whether we should put up our candidate or support her. Sumalatha has already said that instead of discussing personal issues, we must talk about the district (Mandya) and what has to happen there.

‘But, let her first announce her decision on March 18 and we will then take a call.’

In a veiled attack on the ‘family centric’ politics of the Deve Gowda family which has put up Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of the Chief Minister as the JD(S) candidate in Mandya, Mr Krishna said ‘I have always opposed it.’